Well, tropo seems to be more steady, and the signal I got last night
wasn't very stable.  Interestingly enough I checked the lower TV channels,
and nothing, and that packet on 6-meters.  As far as tropo goes I have
heard stuff from New York, and West Virginia and southern Ohio even, but
has been about it, and this is all just on scanner/HT antennas.  One
commercial HT that seems to be sensative is the HT-1000, and the Motorola
Expo.





On Thu, 3 Aug 2006, Louis Kim Kline wrote:

> Hi.
>
> Another thought on Howard's post.  To really determine the mode of
> enhancement, it is helpful to look at a variety of VHF and UHF frequencies,
> and see which end of the spectrum the enhancement is predominant on.  If it
> seems like it is starting at the upper frequencies and working down, i.e.
> FM and the upper TV channels, it is usually ducting or some tropospheric
> effect as Howard mentions in his post.  This is more common on FM
> broadcast.  However, if it is starting at the low VHF frequencies and
> working up, and it is marked by rapid fading, and appears to keep switching
> where signals are coming in from, then it is usually sporadic E skip.  The
> FM broadcast band is at a unique spot in the spectrum because it can get
> enhancement from either mode.
>
> When sporadic E is the mode, you can also often get much greater distances,
> especially if a good enough sporadic E event occurs to get a double hop.
>
> As I said, tropo is more common on the FM band, but occasionally sporadic E
> does happen.  The best way to figure out what is going on is to look at a
> bunch of different frequencies.  If 6 meters is open, and 2 meters isn't,
> or if the lower TV channels are absolutely dead, but your weather radio is
> jumping off the table, those are good clues as to what is going on.
>
> By the way, the weather radio can often be a real good thing to observe
> when looking for two meter band openings because while many frequencies on
> 2 meters may just not be active when the opening occurs, weather stations
> provide nice steady signals that can make some effective propagation beacons.
>
> 73, de Lou K2LKK
>
>
>
> At 09:00 PM 8/2/2006 -0500, you wrote:
> >I'd doubt if you found e-skip that high in frequency, more like it is
> >tropo or tropospheric bend skip.  This is caused by ducting of layers
> >of air where warmer air is layered on top of cooler air.  Common in
> >summer, especially near large bodies of water.  It's really fun and
> >you can work  often for hundreds and hundreds of miles.
> >
> >
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> Louis Kim Kline
> A.R.S. K2LKK
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>